T-Minus 8(ish) Days

That's how long we have to wait, maximum, until Baby LeMaistre #2 arrives. To be honest, I still wake up in the middle of the night panicking about how on earth I'm going to take care of two children, when one of them is already so time consuming. But thankfully Big J gets two weeks off work when the baby's born, and then my mom will be coming down for a week, so I won't have to do it on my own for a little while at least.

So what have we been doing while we've been waiting (not so patiently) for our family to expand? A lot, actually! We drove up past Payson, AZ to a couple nice lakes and spent some time hunting for crawdads and splashing around in streams.

This studious little kid quickly turned into...

...this sleepy little kid. He'll make a great college student.

The drive was only two hours and it was totally worth it. Beautiful scenery on the way there, and some gorgeous view from the Mogollan Rim.

That's not bad, eh?

The lake was beautiful, and there was some great wildlife. We got to see an osprey catch a fish, and a couple humans catch fish too. There were some jays around the campground, and some red tails circling overhead. We walked around the lake a bit and then followed a stream up to the main road.

Lake + fudgesicle = extreme happiness

The weather was perfect. Mid 70s on top of the rim, and mid 80s just down off the rim. We left the lake and headed back towards Payson, but decided to stop at a fish hatchery that was off the main road a bit. It closed 15 minutes after we got there, but we still had a great time. The blackberries were in season so we spent a lot time just stuffing ourselves with them. The scratches and pokes from the thorns were totally worth it.

Little J tried his hardest to free the fishes, but to no
avail. Either that, or he thought that was a
steering wheel.

We got home exhausted and sunburnt, and it was perfect. Being so close to my due date, we brought along the hospital bag, just in case (and I checked to see if the hospital in Payson was covered under our insurance - it was), but alas, we didn't need it.

Last night we had some great adventures too! Some friends invited us on a flashlight tour of the Desert Botanical Gardens and since we had some free passes through the library, we took them up on their offer. We had some dinner first at a fantastic Indian place in Tempe called the Dhaba Cafe. Apparently since you ALWAYS need a reservation (according to the hostess), they didn't have room for us at first, but since Big J had struck up a conversation with the owner a few minutes previous, and were becoming fast friends, they made some accommodations. That's something I love about Big J; he can talk to anyone about anything, and find something in common. Also, being a GIANT pregnant lady can usually score you a few sympathy points too.

Little J thoroughly enjoyed the rickshaw out front.
He also thoroughly enjoyed and ate most of
my chicken makhani. :(

The gardens were stunning at night. And since there was a big monsoonal moisture weather system moving in, it was fairly cool too, with it only being 94 instead of 104. Yay?

Totally gorgeous, no?

Little J and his friend ready to enjoy the night life.

There were great little educational kiosks about geckos, snakes, agaves, saguaros and toads. Little J had the best time playing with the flashlight, and the adults had a great time taking in all the scenery. And speaking of toads, we also spotted this little guy:

Now that we've done all kinds of adventuring, it's time for baby #2 to come. I mean seriously, I can hardly remember a time when I wasn't massively pregnant. Hopefully that comes sooner than later, and all four of us can go on adventures together!